Would You Eat the Pie? (#77)

I thought we’d have a little fun today with a what-if scenario. Sound good?

Despite the title, this is not a story about health or food. It’s more to do with congruence. If you’re wondering why you’re not getting the results you want, this could be a BIG factor. So pay attention and see how little things can affect your results in life and your ultimate fulfillment.

Imagine this:

You’re at a party that one of your friends is holding and you’re having a very good time. You wander into the kitchen to see if you can help to get dinner on the table, and overhear that your best friend made a scrumptious pie for dessert. There’s some excited chatter about how the recipe had been passed down from her great grandmother, and she even had some of the ingredients shipped directly from her family’s hometown.

Intrigued, you decide you’ll definitely try a piece later.

After a lot of laughter and a great dinner, the big moment arrives: the pie is served. You have to admit, it does look delicious. You hear the first people that taste it compliment the chef and ask for the recipe. Someone says it’s the best pie they’ve ever had! They scramble for more.

Now it’s your turn…

As you bite into it though, you’re a bit stunned. Instead of it tasting sweet, it tastes like a mouthful of, well…

You reconsider and smile to yourself…it’s probably just a bit of the crust that hadn’t been mixed properly. It’s not that bad really…or is it?

As you chew it some more, you start to choke a little. You wonder if you can even get through another bite. And then someone asks you, ‘Isn’t it great?’ and they all turn to look at you.

You feel a bit sick, but take another bite and smile. ‘Mmmm…yes, it’s wonderful’ you reply.

In that moment you realize that you hate the pie.

‘My bad’ you think, ‘hate’ is such a strong word, and my spiritual teacher would say to never use it. How could I think such a thing? And my friend looks so happy with herself…good for her!

My question to you is, do you:

leave the rest of the pie on your dish and stare at it?

Hide it in your napkin and let it slip under the table

Eat the rest of the pie and get the recipe?

Have you ever been in a similar situation?

Although a seemingly insignificant event, your behavior demonstrates a lot.

First, I’m sure you recognize the tendency to people-please (we’ve talked about that in other articles). You wouldn’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings, right?

But there’s more. What emotions do you think you’d be experiencing? You’d probably be feeling some contractive energy that doesn’t serve anyone.

Whenever your thoughts, words, emotions and actions are incongruent with each other (saying or doing one thing yet thinking another), you are out of alignment with yourself. This negates all those positive affirmations that you chant daily about wanting peace, harmony and truth.

Do you get it? Congruence with your deepest truth in your mental, emotional, physical and spiritual being translates into alignment, ease and flow. Even if you tell yourself that you want something that makes sense (such as more customers) yet your deepest desire at that time is to rest, you’re operating out of alignment.

Practice what you preach.

So the next time you’re given a piece of pie that doesn’t satisfy, you can graciously set it aside and say you’ve had enough.